News Of Neighbors

Original printed byline: Rachel Boxdorfer

April–May 2014

Andy Cross working on a Cakeway to the West cake. Descriptive caption supplied.

Historical April–May 2014 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Greetings and happy spring (I hope!).

It has been a tough winter and at the time that I am writing this, it appears that spring is easing its way back into our lives with birds singing and even a few buds peaking out into the world. Let’s see what our neighbors have been up to during these cold winter months. Well known neighborhood do-gooder and artist, Andy Cross, celebrated his 50th party at his studio in February.

It was a who’s who of people from Andy’s life and a full house throughout the night.

The amount of people spanning all parts of Andy’s life was a real tribute to his kind and generous spirit. Andy and his family live on the 6000 block of McPherson. Never being one to dwell on himself, Andy has spent more time in the past year preparing for another birthday.

As you all most likely know, our beautiful City of St. Louis is celebrating its 250th birthday this year! Have you seen all of the wonderful cakes throughout our town? Andy completed five cakes for the Cakeway to the West project.

His cakes are the Jewel Box, the Riverfront, the Shakespeare Festival, The Forest Part Balloon Race, and the Hanley House. Andy’s oldest daughter Emily also painted a cake celebrating the St. Louis Symphony, and younger daughter Sarah painted a cake celebrating the St. Louis Science Center.

There really is no doubt that talent runs in the Cross family. Andy also created the ’50 Places’, a mural at the History M u s e u m , which is part of the 250 in 250 exhibit at the Missouri H i s t o r y M u s e u m .

The exhibit showcases 50 objects, 50 moments, 50 people, 50 events, and 50 places in St. Louis’ history. Before he completed the mural, he completed 50 drawings of the same places so that they could be scanned and entered into the computer for selection to get more information about the places in the exhibit. It’s an exhibit we all need to see in this celebration year for our city. Moving from art to writing, Tom Hoerr of the 6100 block of Kingsbury published a new book entitled Fostering Grit: How Do I Prepare My Students for the Real World? Hoerr has been the Head of School at New City School for 32 years but of course is well known to Times Readers through his column In Your Ear. Congratulations, Tom.

A long honored tradition continues to help neighbors on the 6100 and 6000 blocks of McPherson celebrate the Christmas holidays. For several decades the street has had an annual Christmas Caroling Party on the two blocks, raising money for the St. Louis Christmas Carols Association.

This year the post party (traditionally cookies and hot chocolate) grew into a larger pizza party.

The neighbors aging from about three to 60 were able to raise $151.50 for the Christmas Carols Association and also enjoyed a wonderful evening with neighbors.

I have no doubt that David Schmidt, who originally helped organize the event, was singing along with pride from heaven!

We love to hear about neighbors celebrating, and we love to hear about friends dining out. How about six Rosedale neighbors getting together in Jerusalem in early March for dinner? Susan Rotroff and Bob Lamberton (of the 6100 block of Kingbsury), both Washington University Classics professors doing research in Israel through this academic year, and BrittMarie and Jerome Schiller (from the 6100 block of McPherson), who were celebrating Jerome’s 80th birthday, and Peggy Hermes (6100 block of Kingsbury) and David Garin (6100 block of Westminster), who were vacationing in Israel after visiting grandson Oscar who’s studying in Madrid; all met for a lively dinner in Jerusalem!

Please welcome our new neighbors, Glenn & Narci Herr, the new owners of 6046 Westminsterr, formerly owned by Alex Schaffer & Becky Homan. Realtor Katie Kurtz relates, “They regretted missing the block party as they were out of town, but they seem very happy to be in such an involved neighborhood and want to do things … (they are) very lovely people; they have lived in Hong Kong since the early’80s and now they are here!” The Hart family of the 6100 block of McPherson bid farewell to their much beloved dog Katy last month. Within a week the youngest members of the family had coordinated the delivery of two puppies to their home to make up for the loss. Adopted from an animal pound rescue group, brother and sister mixed breed (mutt) puppies Farley and Bailey have brought lots of energy to the household. Recent warm weather has the pups outside and learning to walk on their leashes acquainting themselves with the neighborhood. Welcome Bailey and Farley, you’ve landed in a dog loving neighborhood! Helen Hitchcock of the 6100 block of Kingsbury was happy to report that daughter Louisa and her family were able to visit daughter Consuelo in Washington DC for Mardi Gras.

She was kind enough to share this picture. And the oldest of the Hitchcock girls, Alex, was in town from her home in Summerville, South Carolina to help sister Hilary and her parents celebrate their father Jim’s birthday! Moviegoers in The Loop suffered a loss in February with the passing of John Thompson, who had served as the ticket taker at The Tivoli, working there for 35 years. Thompson was an institution in The Loop and the tributes were a testimony to the type of person he was.

These tributes are certainly a reminder to us all that it is not your position or status that matter, but how you live your life and treat others along the way. Do you have news to share?

Please send your submissions via email with the subject line News of Neighbors to rachelb@sdtimes.org or drop off a note to the attention of Rachel Boxdorfer at the Skinker DeBaliviere office. Be sure to mark it ‘News of Neighbors’.